Prudence really, really wants a pet, but her parents say no, so she is forced to find pets wherever she can, such as her pet Branch and Twig and Formal Footwear in this silly story of a very persistent little girl.

When Emma gets a computer for her birthday, her friend Josh gives her a free CD good for 100 hours of AOL time - totally cool, since it's 1996. Emma signs herself up for her very first AOL account, and logs on to the Internet for the first time.

The very first page she goes to is called "Facebook," something Emma has never heard of before, but then again she's never been online before - so she begins to explore the site. What she finds is herself... thirty years in the future - and it's not a pretty one.

When Artie promises his mean cousin that he will give everyone firecrackers on the next Chinese New Year celebration, he immediately regrets it. How will he ever come up with enough money to buy all those firecrackers? Sympathetic to Artie's problem is Uncle Chester - a fun loving everyman who is wildly popular in Chinatown where Artie's family lives. Uncle Chester promises Artie that he will help - but when Uncle Chester's seemingly endless money starts to run out, Artie begins to worry.

King, a golden retriever, is in the p-o-u-n-d and he doesn't know why! His family, Dad and Kayla (Mom is in the National Guard and not at home) went on vacation to Grandma's house and they never came home!

But now that King is in the pound, other families are looking at him and he is ADOPTED!!!! His new family calls him Buddy! How can King be adopted when Kayla and Dad are missing and he needs to find them?

Have you ever read a book that made you cry? Ever read a book that, once you were finished, you just sat with and held for a while, letting the words sink into you, not wanting to have finished it? Ever read a book that you couldn't stop thinking about after you finished? Ever read a book that was so true and real you experienced the whole thing in your mind as you read? This is one of those books.

Grades 5-9
Third U.S. President Thomas Jefferson lived at the plantation Monticello and kept slaves to work in his fields, farm and home. One of his slaves was a woman named Sally Hemings, mother to four of Jefferson's children - Beverly, Harriet, Maddy, and Eston. Though slaves, the children and their mother were given special treatment by Jefferson because of his discreet relationship to them - but nevertheless, slaves they remained.

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